The Eames House Prepares for the 23rd Century, Launches 250-Year Preservation Plan

February 19, 2013

If there’s something productive to come of the recent preservation debates (see here, here, here, here, and I can go on, but I’ll stop), it’s the heightened awareness that modernist buildings need some love and attention. Over in the Pacific Palisades, the organization running Charles and Ray Eames‘s Case Study House #8, a.k.a. the Eames House, know that it’s not too early to start freaking out. Yes, Ice Cube may have recently professed his love for the midcentury landmark, but 100 years down the line, who knows if another acclaimed rapper-turned-actor will endorse its continued existence. This is where the Eames House’s new fundraising insurance policy comes in: The Eames Foundation is seeking to raise $150,000 towards maintaining and protecting the Eames House for the next 250 years.

The funds will go toward the creation of a 250-year maintenance plan, the preservation and repair of original materials, the development of climate control systems, and a long term plan for grounds and implementation, which may or may not involve sealing the house in an air-tight bubble in the event that rising sea levels engulf coastal California. When you do that math, the fundraising goal comes out to about $1.65 a day, the equivalent of one person forgoing his or her morning cup of coffee. But to inspire a bit more beneficence, the Eames Foundation is peddling limited edition prints modeled after the “elegant geometry and understated simplicity of the Eames designs” for $75 a pop, with all proceeds going to support the projects of the Eames Foundation. Donate and get a print here.